Indium oxide-tin oxide (In2O3—SnO2 compound oxide, hereinafter abbreviated as “ITO”) film is a transparent conductive film which has high optical transparency with respect to visible light and high conductivity and which, therefore, finds a wide variety of uses, such as a liquid crystal display, a heat-generating film for defogging a glass panel, and an IR-reflecting film. However, difficulty is encountered in depositing such a transparent conductive film in an amorphous state.
Meanwhile, indium oxide-zinc oxide (IZO) transparent conductive film, which is known as an amorphous film, has a drawback in that the film exhibits a transparency lower than that of ITO film and tends to be yellowed.
In order to overcome the drawbacks, the present inventor previously proposed an amorphous transparent conductive film produced through adding silicon to a transparent ITO film and deposited under predetermined conditions (see Patent Document 1). However, when silicon is added to a transparent conductive film, resistance of the film tends to increase, which is problematic.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) No. 2005-135649 (claims)